The First of Many
by Kenjiro Minami
Summary: Askira Jones, daughter of Hephaestus, grew up an atheist. She and her daughter, Evangeline, have recently moved in with her boyfriend, Gadreel Black, who is a son of Ares. Gadreel grew up in a Christian family, and celebrates Christmas. Learning his tradition is strange for her, but fun, too, for all three of them.
1. Chapter 1

"Gadreel, why did you drag me to the store to pick out _children's_ toys? It's nowhere _near_ Evangeline's birthday. Gadreel! Come on, answer me. What the hell are we doing here? Evangeline can pick out her own toys, you know."

The man in question ignored his redheaded girlfriend of three years for the time being as he stood in front of an array of stuffed animals, trying to decide what his girlfriends three year-old daughter would want. He picked up an elephant and showed it to Askira. "Do you think she'd like this?" He asked.

Askira glanced at it, putting her hands on her hips. "Yes. But why are you getting it for her?"

The twenty-two year old Italian raised an eyebrow. "Am I not allowed to get gifts for my two favorite girls?"

"Not without reason," the redhead nineteen year old immediately answered.

"I have reason enough to be getting her this." He dropped the elephant into the shopping cart he had grabbed from the front of the shop. He pushed it forward a little ways down the aisle, the place where he had just been at immediately filled by another person with a shopping cart, who grabbed a bunch of stuffed animals, reading from a list before dropping one of the stuffed animals listed into their cart. Askira watched them for a little while, confused on why so many people were running around in the local mall picking up toys and wrapping paper.

"Is everybody celebrating early birthdays, today?" The demigod asked Gadreel as she looked away from the person grabbing down stuffed animals. She walked over to where he was looking at her incredulously.

"You seriously don't know what's happening this month, do you?"

Askira's red eyebrows furrowed. "No. What's happening this month?"

"Christmas, of course!" Gadreel exclaimed, grabbing a doll house and putting it into the cart, along with a few dolls. Askira quickly shook her head.

"No dolls. Absolutely _no_ dolls," she told him. Gadreel raised an eyebrow and put the dolls and dollhouse back.

"Why not?" The Italian asked, grabbing out the last doll from the shopping cart.

Instead of answering her boyfriends question, Askira just asked him her own question. "Isn't that the day you got that red sled of yours that you've been refusing to get rid of, even though it doesn't snow here?"

Gadreel gave his girlfriend a lopsided grin and lumbered over to her, wrapping his arms around the smaller demigod, who never quite grew to her full potential height after giving birth two months premature when she was three months shy of turning sixteen. "You know you love the color."

Askira's lips quirked up, though she tried not to smile. " _No_ ," she said. "I know _you_ like the color." She poked his well muscled chest pointedly. "You've always told me red is your favorite color. That's why you always want to brush my hair; because it's red. Dull, but it's still red."

Gadreel grinned even wider. "True... And Evangeline's hair is starting to turn red, too. I'm a little disappointed that it didn't stay brown, like my hair-"

"She's not even _your_ daughter, Gadreel," Askira pointed out. "You _know_ she's Cyril's."

His expression darkened at the name of the man who had raped his girlfriend. But he quickly changed his expression back to his neutrally happy one. "I know! But that doesn't mean that I can't _see_ her as my daughter! It would be even _more_ convincing if she looked less like you and more like _me_."

The daughter of Hephaestus couldn't help but to laugh at what the son of Ares had said. "Well, her eyes _are_ kind of gray, like yours."

"Yeah, but they're also brown," he whined, pulling Askira closer to him. He turned around when he sensed someone trying to take something out of his shopping cart, and it only took a few seconds of murderous glaring to get them to scamper away, leaving the stuffed elephant in the demigod's cart. "She looks more like Ben. If you two weren't siblings, I'd swear she was the result of the two of you."

Askira rolled her eyes. "Neither of us have gray eyes, though."

"Yeah, well, neither did her biological fa-" Gadreel stiffened when he heard the cart move behind him. He turned around to see a seven year-old boy trying to get the elephant out of the shopping cart, and he immediately removed his arms from Askira, lumbering over to the boy. "Son, you better put that down _right now_ , or the next place your head is going to be is back up your mothe-"

"Gadreel Samuel Black," Askira growled lowly, her arms crossed over her chest. The son of Ares turned away from the frightened child, who was frozen, blue eyes wide. Askira gave the child a small smile and knelt down in front of them, though she really didn't need to. "Sweetie," she said softly, pulling out her phone. She moved around on the screen, looking for something to show the boy. "Do you know why that man wants the elephant?"

"Because he's a meanie," the boy responded.

"Am not!"

Askira ignored Gadreel's childish pouting, chuckling softly at the little boy. "No, honey. That's not why the man wants it. He wants it to give to my daughter. She's three tears old, and absolutely _loves_ elephants." She pulled up a picture of her daughter, and showed it to the little boy.

The boy looked at the picture and smiled. "She's cute," he said sweetly. "Momma says that she wanted a little girl, but she's only gotten boys."

"Oh? How many of there are you?"

The boy counted on his fingers before holding up a number. "Four," he told Askira.

"And they're all boys?"

"Yup!"

"Do you all share toys?"

The little boy nodded. "We do. We fight a lot, too. My big brothers always take my DS, even though I'm playing it most of the time."

That gave Askira an idea, and she looked at Gadreel, whose pale blue eyes immediately widened. "Oh no. No no no no no no no. I am _not_ spending money on a little brat who tried to take Evangeline's elephant!"

"Gadree-"

"No, it's okay," the young boy said, clutching the elephant close to his chest before sighing. "I shouldn't have tried to take it." He put it back in the cart, and Askira's motherly instincts immediately kicked in when she saw his disappointed look.

Turning to Gadreel, she put her hands on her hips saucily. "Gadreel Samuel Black, you either get him the DS, or everything you have put in the cart for Evangeline, as well as everything else you're going to put in."

"But that's all for Ava!" He whined.

" _Then get him the DS_. Isn't that what Christmas is about? Giving to those in need? Pushing aside differences?"

Gadreel sighed. "You know more about Christmas than you've let on," he grumbled before letting out a heavy sigh. " _Fine_. I'll get him the damn DS."

Both the little boy and Askira grinned widely. The young boy hopped over to Gadreel and threw his arms around him. "Thank you so much, sir!" he exclaimed.

Gadreel took a small step back in surprise before smiling slightly. He gave the small boy a hug back. "You're welcome," he said. "Actually... as a matter of fact, I'll just give you mine." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a DS, a black one that had a game in the cartridge slot. "You can have the game in it, too. It's Pokémon, black version."

The boys eyes widened in shock at that. "Oh no, sir. I can't take that! I wouldn't be able to pay you back!"

"There's no need, boy. Just take it. Here's the charger, too." He reached into his other pocket and pulled out the charger. He didn't move to put them back into his pocket, and after awhile, the boy finally took them.

"Thank you, sir!" The boy exclaimed, making Gadreel and Askira both smile. "You should probably talk to my momma, though. She might think I stole it from you."

"Oh. Well, then, let's go talk to your mom, little man. What's your name, anyways? Maybe I can put a good word in for you at this _amazing_ college for you to go to next year..."

-o-

 **Nyap. This is going to be a multiple-shot thingy... Yeah. :P**


	2. Chapter 2

"Thank you for doing that, Gadreel." Askira said as Gadreel drove the two of them back to their apartment.

The son of Ares grinned. "Well, I couldn't have my girlfriend be mad at me because I wouldn't get the poor boy anything."

She smiled softly when Gadreel reached out a hand and grasped her smaller one in his, giving it a light squeeze. "Na. I wouldn't have been _too_ mad at you."

"Oh, so that silent threat saying you'd give me the silent treatment for a few thousand months if I didn't give him anything wasn't you being mad at me?"

"Nope!"

Gadreel laughed at that. He brought up Askira's hand and kissed it. "I love you, Askira," he told the other demigod after he had kissed her hand, glancing at her real quick to see his girlfriend grinning widely. He chuckled as he returned his gaze to the road, pulling into their apartment parking lot.

"I love you, too, Gadreel," she told the son of Ares before her red eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Aren't we going to go pick up Evangeline and give her the thousand stuffed animals you insisted on buying her?"

Gadreel chuckled. "Really? We've been driving this direction the entire time, and you just now noticed?"

"Hey! You know how distracted I can get with the metals in my pocket!"

"I know, and it's adorable." Gadreel grinned as he pulled into their designated parking spot. He out the car in park before turning to his girlfriend. The son of Ares' grin widened when he saw her pouting. He chuckled and gently tugged on her hand, which he still had hold of, and pulled the daughter of Hephaestus closer to him. Once she was close enough, he gently pressed his lips to hers. Askira stopped pouting at that, and gently kissed him back, bringing a hand up to rest it lightly on one of Gadreel's cheeks. After a few moments, she pulled away, smiling softly.

"I love you, Gadreel," the daughter of Hephaestus murmured.

"I love you, too, Askira," the son of Ares responded in equal volume before he grinned. "We need a son."

She snorted. "No we don't."

"Yes we do!"

"Give me one good reason why we would need a son."

"Well... we'd have a child to call our own-"

"You already call Ava yours," Askira interrupted. "You need a better reason than that."

Gadreel blinked his pale blue, almost gray eyes. "Well... then I wouldn't be the only guy in the house-"

"Nope."

"Well... that little boy at the store. He was pretty cute. Don't you want a cute little boy, too?"

"I do, but also no. Still not a very good reason." She gave her boyfriend a small pat on his cheek. "Keep thinking there, One Man Army," Gadreel grinned at the nickname she had given him back in their years at Camp Phoenix. "Maybe one day you'll find a good enough reason to get me pregnant."

"I'll think long and hard about that, then," he promised, making Askira chuckle.

"Come on," she said, gathering her things. "Let's get inside."

-o-

Once the couple had everything inside, Askira eager to get to her daughter but Gadreel holding her back. He told her that they still had yet to wrap all of the gifts that they had gotten for Evangeline and then hide them away in the closet so she couldn't possibly find them. That's what confused Askira.

"Why do we need to hide the gifts?"

"Because we do."

"So we bought them... just to hide them?"

"Until Christmas Eve," Gadreel responded.

"But... why?"

"So Evangeline can believe in Santa, of course!"

"But... she's gone three years without Santa."

"Pft. Technicalities. She'll believe eventually."

Askira wasn't so sure about that, but nodded. "Alright..."

Gadreel flashed her a smile as he continued wrapping. "You'll see. She'll believe. I'm sure the kids at her daycare have been talking about Santa coming, anyways."

"If they're Christian like you."

Gadreel shook his head. "Not necessarily. I know a couple atheist families that celebrate Christmas."

Askira blinked in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah, really. I was quite surprised when I learned that your mom never celebrated it with you. And the fact that you went to private schools all your life."

Askira shrugged helplessly. "I never paid much attention."

Gadreel raised an eyebrow. "I can see that..." He shrugged and finished wrapping the gift he was wrapping. "Anyways, we need to hide the ifts until Christmas Eve, and at midnight, we need to put them underneath the tree."

"Wait wait wait," Askira said quickly. "We need a _tree_? Where the hell are we going to get a _tree_? What kind of tree do we need?"

"A pine tree, of course!"

"You know Ava is going to try to eat that!"

"She's going to try to eat a fake one, too!"

"Well, at least a fake one she can't pick apart!"

"Yes she can!" Gadreel argued with a whine.

"She could set a _real_ one on fire!"

"She- What- She doesn't- Where the hell did _that_ come from?" Gadreel stammered. "She doesn't even have pyrokinetic abilities!"

"You don't know that!" Askira argued.

"Neither do you!"

Askira crossed her arms, glaring forest green daggers at Gadreel, and he knew he had lost the argument. "If we're getting a tree, it's _going to be a fake one_ , understood?"

Gadreel nodded. "Yes, I understand," he grumbled. "We'll go with a fake tree."

Askira nodded. "Good. Now, keep wrapping. I'm going to go take a shower," she told him before walking off to the bathroom.

Gadreel chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Yes, ma'am," he said before he continued to wrap.


	3. Chapter 3

"Gayral, Gayral! Guess what, guess what, guess what!"

Gadreel smiled softly when Evangeline mispronounced his name, like the three year old always did. He opened the door of her daycare and held it open, and Askira's daughter bounced into the outside, the son of Ares following after her, letting the door to the daycare close. "What, Ava?"

She stopped and turned around. She pouted at Gadreel, her lower lip puckering out. "You didn't guess! I can't tell you what uness you guess!"

Gadreel chuckled and scooped Evangeline into his arms, making the girl squeal and laugh as the man set his girlfriends child on his shoulders. "Alright, alright! I'll guess. I'm guessing that... Tommy finally admitted that he absolutely _loves_ you. Is that what happened?"

The three year-old wrinkled her tiny nose in disgust. "Ew! No! Icky! Love is _gross_! Why ould he do _that_?"

Gadreel resisted laughing, and instead tilted his head up to look up at Evangeline. He kept his face serious as he responded. "Love isn't icky. You love your mommy, right? And your Uncle Ben? And Aunt Aithne?"

"Well _yeah_ , but that's deefront. That is a deefront kind of love. That is _family_ love, Gayral. And I love you, too, Gayral! You are part of the family, too!"

Gadreel smiled at that, ignoring the urge he had to correct her pronunciation of "different". "Am I?" He asked instead. "You really think I'm part of the family?"

Ava smiled widely and nodded. "Mmhm! Mommy loves you, so that eans that you are part of the family. You are like my daddy, Gayral. I know you aren't my _real_ daddy, but you are like my real daddy. I don't know who my real daddy is, but I am glad I don't, cus you are _much_ batter than him, cus you actuy stay with my mommy." The three year-old girl wrapped her arms around the older person's head, giving him a hug and making Gadreel smile more.

"That is very kind of you, Ava, and it means a lot to me that you think that. And you are _very_ smart, too, for knowing the differences of the different love. Do you know what kind of love I love your mommy with?"

"Love love! Not family love. A deefront love. The one with lots of kisses and time in bed."

Gadreel's eyes widened slightly at her description of the kind of love the kind of love he and Askira had, but he knew if he denied it Ava would know he was lying. She was good that way. She knew when someone was lying to her, so there was no getting past her with a lie. So, instead, he decided to clarify it to her more that they didn't spend that much time in bed. "Actually, Ava," he started. "Mommy and I don't stay in bed that much. Yes, we sleep together, but-"

"But not the way to make me broers and sisers, right?"

He smiled and nodded. "Right. Gods. Where do you learn this stuff?"

She grinned. "I isten to my teachers talk. Misses Caba is pregnaunt."

"Oh, is she? How did you learn that?"

"She let me feel her tummy," Evangeline told Gadreel, patting her own stomach. "Her tummy was bigger than mine, toe, cus she had a baby inide it. She's a girl, like me! I told Misses Caba to name her Beetrice."

Gadreel chuckled. "Beatrice? Why Beatrice?"

"Cus I like that name!" Evangeline responded.

"Do you now? Maybe you should tell mommy that you want that to be your name."

"No!"

"Well, why not?"

"Cus I like my name, too! More than I like Beetrice. Evangeline is _pearfect_ for me." She grinned.

Gadreel smiled back at her. "That it is."

"You still have not guessed what I was talking about, you know."

Gadreel blinked his pale blue, almost gray eyes. "Oh yeah... what was it that you had wanted me to guess?"

"It's almost Crustmas!" Evangeline exclaimed, throwing her hands up to accompany her exclamation.

"Christmas?" Gadreel repeated, feigning cluelessness. "What's... _Christmas?_ "

Evangeline rolled her gray-brown eyes. "You know what Crustmas is, Gayral! Don't act like you don't!"

The son of Ares laughed at that. "Yes, you're right. I _do_ know what Christmas is. And you know what?"

"What?"

"Mommy says we get to celebrate it this year."

Evangeline grinned. "We do?" Gadreel nodded, and Evangeline bounced on his shoulders in her excitement. "Hurry up and get us home, then! I want to dacrate for Santa! Giddy up, Gayral! Giddy up!"

He laughed and let out a playful whinny before jumping around a little, making Evangeline clutch to his forehead and laugh. "Hold on tight! I'm going to gallop the whole way to the car, and I parked pretty far away today!" He only gave the little girl a couple of seconds before he started to gallop quite literally to the car, bucking occasionally to make Evangeline laugh.

 **...**

 **Ah, Gadreel. So full of energy with a little one. ;3**


End file.
